Abstract

Publications abound on the physiology, biochemistry and molecular biology of “anaerobic” protozoal parasites as usually grown under “anaerobic” culture conditions. The media routinely used are poised at low redox potentials using techniques that remove O2 to “undetectable” levels in sealed containers. However there is growing understanding that these culture conditions do not faithfully resemble the O2 environments these organisms inhabit. Here we review for protists lacking oxidative energy metabolism, the oxygen cascade from atmospheric to intracellular concentrations and relevant methods of measurements of O2, some well-studied parasitic or symbiotic protozoan lifestyles, their homeodynamic metabolic and redox balances, organism-drug-oxygen interactions, and the present and future prospects for improved drugs and treatment regimes.